Entries tagged with: jeffthe brotherhood

Mumford & Sons' traveling festival Gentlemen of the Road returns this year, with a stopover not far from NYC in Seaside Heights, NJ on June 5 & 6 with The Flaming Lips, Alabama Shakes, The Vaccines, The Maccabees, Dawes, the Very Best, Jenny Lewis, Little May, JEFF the Brotherhood, Blake Mills and more TBA. Tickets go on sale Friday (3/6) at 10 AM. There's other stopovers in Iowa, Scotland, Washington, Colorado, and more TBA. All current lineups below.

The Mumfords have also announced that their third album, Wilder Mind, is due out May 4 via Glassnote. A new article about the album on Rolling Stone says, "Mumford & Sons have mostly removed their signature elements - banjo, acoustic strumming, stomping kick drum - and replaced them with U2-sized guitars, synths, spacey mellotrons and even some drum machines." The album was produced by Arctic Monkeys' go-to guy and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford, and they also recorded part of it in The National's Aaron Dessner's studio in Ditmas Park (inspiring the song "Ditmas"). Artwork, tracklist, and teaser video below.

Warner Brothers (or any major label) never seemed like a very good fit for such a DIY-leaning band like JEFF the Brotherhood. Well, they and label have now parted ways. At least for Jake and Jamin, they are "fucking pleased" as you can read in the statement they just released:

Hello friends and fans and family and hello people of the press and people of the industry!

We, JEFF The Brotherhood, are SO FUCKING PLEASED to announce that we have been DROPPED from the clutches of the demented vulture that is Warner Bros! We feel as though a heavy weight has been lifted from our shoulders, and could not be more excited.

As for our album, "Wasted on the Dream", it is finally coming out March 24th on Infinity Cat Recordings - our spiritual, as well as literal home.

It was a very strange experience working with WBR. Luckily, we help to run an indie label that has its shit together more than the big guys, and the announcement comes today from Infinity Cat. The records are pressed, and we are poised and ready!

It's true what you've heard, the era of the major label is over, we have seen it first hand. Upwards and onwards!

The 2015 Forecastle Festival take place July 17 - 19 in Louisville, Kentucky. The fest has just announced the first round of performers, which include Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Tweedy, Desaparecidos, The Gaslight Anthem, Sturgill Simpson, Sam Smith, Alvvays, JEFF The Brotherhood, Speedy Ortiz, Big K.R.I.T., and lots more. Tickets go on sale Friday (1/30) at noon EST. All announced Forecastle Fest 2015 performers are listed below.

JEFF the Brotherhood have announced details of their new album, which is titled Wasted on the Dream and will be released on March 10 via Infinity Cat / Warner Bros. You can check out its cover art and tracklist below. Says singer/guitarist Jake Orall about the new album:

We're more proud of this record than any record we've made before. It's the most time we've ever spent writing songs, the most time we've ever spent in the studio, and it's definitely the most fully realized JEFF The Brotherhood record we've ever made.

Jake and Jamin have released the second song from the record, the Weezer-y "Coat Check Girl," which you can stream, along with the more old-school-JEFF ripper "What a Creep," below.

JEFF the Brotherhood have a new record due out in 2015, which will be their second for Warner Brothers. Details are still forthcoming but Jake and Jamin have offered up the first single, "What's a Creep," which is a crunchy JEFF-style piledriver, completely with a twin lead solo. You can stream or download below.

The boys were in NYC for DbA's final night, playing in their old two-piece configuration but the current line-up of JEFF is a quartet. Folks in Chicago can catch this new incarnation of JEFF at Empty Bottle on New Year's Eve. That and Burgerama are their only dates at the moment, but that will likely change sooner than later.

Man, Burger Records is really feeling the Angus Soundtrack '90s kids lately. First they signed The Muffs and now they've booked Weezer for their fourth Burgerama festival happening March 28-29 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA. And that's not their only kinda-crazy booking this year. They've also got Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the current version of Gang of Four, and of course plenty of awesome more expected names like Ty Segall, Black Lips, J Mascis, Ariel Pink, Roky Erickson, King Khan & BBQ Show, FIDLAR, White Fence, together PANGEA, The Queers, The Coathangers, Shannon and the Clams, JEFF the Brotherhood, La Luz, Girl Band and still plenty more as you can see in the full lineup below. Tickets go on sale at 10 AM PST on Friday (12/12).

When Lightning Bolt's set ended at around 2 AM Saturday night (11/22), the floor of Death by Audio was littered with beer cans and ripped-up issues of Vice magazine. Their set, which was the last to ever be played at DbA, was one of the wildest I've ever seen at the now-closed DIY showspace. It was a turbulent sea with constant crowdsurfers. I saw many smiling sweaty people afterwards with blood all over their tshirts. (There was also a kid on top the crowd eating a burrito which was amazing.) Among those on top the crowd: DbA co-founder Edan Wilber who was wearing a homemade shirt that read "START YOUR OWN FUCKING SHOWSPACE." The crowd would not let him down, and much like Ty Segall a week before, he had a massive grin plastered to his face. It was a perfect way (and the perfect band) for DbA to go out.

Admittedly, the final night didn't start off quite as perfectly. The line for the final show started forming around 3 PM and by 5 PM was at Kent -- which was usually the cutoff point for who got in on the previous nights -- and it eventually went past Glasslands. (They did give away free hot chocolate for folks in line.) The paid list for friends and family (which, I won't deny, included the guy writing this) was big, and there was also the problem of rampant space-holding by folks in line.

Grooms

The main space was full of folks that looked like DbA regulars to me by the time openers Grooms took the stage, and what weird vibes there were lifted when they started to play. (Grooms have basically practiced at DbA since they began as Muggabears and have played there many many times over the last seven years.) Singer Travis Johnson was definitely holding back tears at first and gave a nice tribute to the space and Edan: "If more people cared as much about music and as little about actually making money as Edan, the world would be a better place." Guitarist Jay Heiselmann, meanwhile, may hold the record for most shows at DbA's final stand, having also played with Roya, The Immaculates, French Miami, and Fuckton. The night also marked the return of original member Emily Ambruso who is apparently back in the band these days.

Next up were Nashville's JEFF the Brotherhood who played in their original Jake-and-Jamin two-piece configuration as a throwback to their first-ever NYC show... which was at DbA. (A lot of bands' first shows were at DbA.) They are basically DbA family and it would've been more of a surprise if they didn't play. Not that I dislike the expanded lineup, but Jake and Jamin are such a killer locked groove, they don't need others so much. They were great on Saturday and the pit rivaled Lightning Bolt's with people banging into each other in the crowd and on top. When their set ended and the crowd screamed for more, Jake reminded folks "opening bands don't do encores!"

Oliver Ackermann and his birthday pie

Irony of ironies, Saturday was also the birthday of Death by Audio owner / pedalmaker / bartender Oliver Ackermann who also fronts noisemakers A Place to Bury Strangers. He was presented with candle-covered pies right before APTBS' set and the whole place sang "Happy Birthday." It was a nice moment. He blew out the candles and the band started the set which was white noise sensory deprivation with smoke machines, strobes, and lasers on full blast. The only time I saw a member of the band during their set was when bassist Dion Lunadon leapt onto the crowd still playing his bass.

There was a dance party in "The Ranch" in the back and people just hung out and talked till basically the sun came up. (I left about 5 AM.) Thanks again to Edan, Matt and Oliver and everyone else who worked there and made it special.

Matt Conboy and Edan Wilber post-show

More pics from Death by Audio's final show, plus video of all four bands' sets (via unARTigNYC), below...

Brooklyn DIY showspace Death by Audioclosed out its seven-year existence on Saturday (11/22) with headliners Lightning Bolt, old pals JEFF the Brotherhood, as well as A Place to Bury Strangers and Grooms. We've got a proper set of pictures from the finale on the way, but a few cameraphone shots and instagrams are in this post.

Colleen Green is back with her third album, I Want to Grow Up, which will be out February 24 on Hardly Art. She made the album in Nashville with JEFF the Brotherhood's Jake Orrall and Diarrhea Planet's Casey Weissbuch. You can hear their crunchy influence on first single, "Pay Attention," which is streamable below.

She's got a few tour dates over the next month, but nothing in NYC unfortunately. Hopefully soon. Those are listed, along with the album tracklist and song stream, below...

Death by Audio still has another five weeks open but signs that things are changing are already apparent. Construction scaffolding is already up outside the building, and inside they've knocked down part of the wall that divides the front and back rooms of the DIY venue so you can see the stage all the way back at the bar. While the former is kinda depressing, the wall being gone inside actually makes the place a little more comfortable, especially for bananapants shows like JEFF the Brotherhood and Diarrhea Planet on Sunday (10/12). A little more room to breath and be clear of the constant crowdsurfing (for those not into that). Apparently, a lot of big, potentially wild shows are in the works.

There are few bands, to me at least, that are as synonymous with DbA as JEFF. Some of the craziest things I've ever seen at the place were during JEFF shows (including personally getting hit with a bottle rocket [unharmed] which was crazy, maybe not cool, but I won't forget it) and the band always make time to play there. Part of their tour with fellow Nashvillians Diarrhea Planet, this was the NYC debut of a new four-piece version of JEFF with a guitarist and bassist giving Jake and Jamin Orrall a little more oomph. I never had any problem with the duo version, mind you. Jake riffing away while Jamin, head down, laid down a motorik beat like a machine. But they sounded great. The crowd went the most nuts for We Are the Champions' "Mellow Out," at least till "the Wizard" made an appearance for a set-ending cover of Rush's "Working Man."

One more note about their set: I've seen a handful of shows at DbA since they announced the end, and JEFF were the first band not to sentimentalize on stage. Which I was personally thankful for, as it's felt like the longest eulogy ever sometimes (though the sentiment is certainly commiserated). They came to rock not to mourn, though Jamin said before their set he felt a little overwhelmed.

The crowd for Diarrhea Planet was actually much wilder than JEFF's, with near-constant crowd surfing, which seemed to fit their guitar-heavy, beer-rock anthems. There were a lot of guitars/guitarists on stage, all with Big Rock Moves, and the crowd was singing along to all the choruses, fists in air. I saw two amazing things during their set, both crowd-surfing related. Number 1: some kid, while atop the crowd, began taking selfies with a disposable camera. Whether intentional or not, he was immediately dropped. (I'd like to think it was on purpose). Number 2: One of the more frequent crowdsurfers was a girl whose birthday it was (apparently), and at one point she grabbed onto one of the fans in the drop-ceiling which immediately came down though was still hanging by the wires. Some guy raced from the back of the room, got hoisted up by the crowd and shoved the fan back into place. The band and the crowd went wild. This is the guy who put it back:

Before the headliners were Brooklyn's Scully, most of whom used to be in The Splinters (who played early DbA shows with JEFF) and who played a fun set of garagey pop. I missed first group: Nashville dancehall act Punani Huntah that features Jake Orrall on the decks (or laptop in this case).

JEFF and DP also played Santos Party House on Monday (10/13) as well. Pictures from the whole DbA show continue below...

As mentioned, JEFF the Brotherhood are set to release an EP of covers, titled Dig the Classics, which will be out via Infinity Cat/Warner Brother next week (9/30). We've got the premiere of The Wipers' classic, "Mystery." Says singer/guitarist Jake Orrall:

To quote the great Shellshag (who also covered this one on their "Fuck Society" covers record), "This song should be a standard, every band should cover it". This includes us obviously.

Give it a listen, plus their cover of Pixies' "Gouge Away" (which premiered at SPIN), below.

JEFF will soon be on tour, too, playing their NYC spiritual home, the soon-to-closeDeath by Audio on October 12 (sold out), and also Santos Party House on October 13 (tickets). Both those shows are with tourmates Diarrhea Planet.

All upcoming JEFF tour dates, plus those streams from the new covers EP, below...

Following 2012's Dan Auerbach-produced major label debut, Hypnotic Nights, JEFF the Brotherhood are back with a self-produced EP of covers titled Dig the Classics. The band take songs by Pixes, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub and more and put their own distinctive spin on them. No track has been released to stream yet, but you can check out cover art and full tracklist below. It's out September 30 via Warner Brothers/Infinity Cat.

Jake and Jamin are about to head out on tour which will keep JEFF on the road through the fall. The October leg of that tour is with Diarrhea Planet and hits NYC for two shows: 10/12 at Death by Audio (their NYC spiritual home) and 10/13 at Santos Party House (site of the 2012 BV-presented record release party). Tickets for the Santos show go on sale Wednesday (7/30) at 10 AM. No word on tickets for DbA at the moment.

Music of the heavier persuasion was decently represented, and Castevet's Andrew Hock made the cut. You can catch him in action with Castevet at an Invisible Oranges sponsored show on October 25 at Union Pool with Churchburn, Oneirogen and Vorde. Also on the list, as a pair, are Inter Arma riff monsters Trey Dalton and Steven Russell. Inter Arma will be back in NYC soon to play Saint Vitus on October 30 with Black Tusk, Descender and No Way.

Ty Segall, who also made the list, will be here next weekend (but on drums) with his band Fuzz, playing a sold out show at Mercury Lounge on 10/12 with CCR Headcleaner. (There is also a show with "Buzz" and "DDT Shampoo" at Death by Audio on 10/13).

It probably goes without saying that long-running Williamsburg DIY spot Death by Audiogets a lot of good shows. Many of those are recorded -- you may have noticed a microphone sticking out of the drop-ceiling tiles. DbA has cherry-picked a dozen of the best moments from last year for a book of flexis simply titled Live at Death by Audio 2012 that is being released by Famous Class at the end of July. That's the cover art above.

As mentioned, Queens of the Stone Age are releasing a new album, ...Like Clockwork, which is due out June 4 via Matador. They already released the first single, "My God Is The Sun," and now they've given us another... well half of it at least. A 30-second teaser for QOTSA track "I Appear Missing" aired on Adult Swim last night (5/5), and now the band have released a three-minute video for the track, but the album version is reportedly a six-minute song. You can watch the three-minute video below.

Speaking of Adult Swim, they just released the free Garage Swim compilation, which features new music from Thee Oh Sees, King Tuff & Gap Dream, Jeff the Brotherhood, Black Lips, Mikal Cronin, King Khan and the Gris Gris, Mind Spiders, OBN IIIs, Weekend, Cheap Time, Bass Drum of Death, and more. You can download it for free HERE and stream the entire thing below.

As the wind whipped through the final day of Coachella's first weekend, it became clear to those at the front of the stage that the techs getting the stage set up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' festival-closing headlining set had a choice: take down the video screens that clearly were a part of the Peppers' production, or leave them up, risking them blowing uncontrollably around the stage. So they chose the former, leaving behind grandiose production elements in favor of solid -- but not-quite-revelatory -- musicianship.

It's a sort of metaphor for this year's edition of the festival, which never quite hit the watercooler moment. On the final day of the first weekend (the lineup repeats next week), there were no superstar surprises, no Daft Punk appearance and, during the Chili Peppers' set, not even a new song: just a major band, playing through their major hits, for a major audience.

It's been the story of this Coachella from the start, when the two-weekend blowout nearly sold out before the lineup was even announced, but on the field it became immediately obvious: This festival, at least this year, no longer was about "music fans" but about "Coachella fans" -- that is to say, the tens of thousands of revelers who packed the field had no specific allegiance to a band, a genre or an affiliation. - [Hollywood Reporter]

The first weekend of Coachella wrapped up last night (4/14). with sets from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dead Can Dance, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and Staten Island hiphop legends the Wu-Tang Clan who performed much of their classic 1993 album, Enter The 36 Chambers, as well as solo hits from the different members. Earlier Sunday also saw Grimes' energetic set, noisemakers JEFF the Brotherhood and Dinosaur Jr, the mellow gold of Kurt Vile, Australian psych purveyors Tame Impala, crowd-pleasers Vampire Weekend, Gaslight Anthem, and Father John Misty. Pictures of those acts' sets are in this post.

Other acts that played Sunday: Cloud Nothings as a three-piece, Ghost BC (who played too early for our photographer to catch), Jessie Ware (who also made an appearance during Disclosure's set) and San Francisco psych-garage kings Thee Oh Sees, who we also missed but were joined on sleigh bells by fellow Bay Area resident Ty Segall.

Pictures from day 1 are HERE and HERE, pictures from day 2 are HERE. More day 3 Coachella pictures below...

As mentioned, Brooklyn duo Shellshag are releasing their new album, Shellshag Forever, on April 16 via Don Giovanni. The band formed in the '90s as the duo of John Driver, whose nickname is Shellhead, and Jennifer Shagawat (aka Shell and Shag, hence Shellshag), who were and still are a couple. Though they've been a band for so long, they've been getting more attention for this new album (appearing on Pitchfork and Stereogum for this first time). And Shellshag Forever is a great record to gain them a larger fan base. The production is a bit bigger and clearer than their past releases, and their songwriting is in top form. Many of the tracks are autobiographical stories about Shell and Shag's band and relationship with lyrics that put you in specific moments like "That old hoodie, it reminds me of the time we walked a mile to play that show out in the sunset."

The album is now available for pre-order at the Don Giovanni webstore, and you can listen to it in its entirety ahead of its release date at the bottom of this post. Also below is a video of Shellshag performing an acoustic version of the album's lead track, "Face to Face," which they recorded for the BrooklynVegan 'Green Room Sessions' in 2011.

As mentioned, Shellshag have a number of shows coming up, including one at Union Pool on Saturday (4/13) with RVIVR, Dogjaw, and Extra Feeler (tickets) and a record release show for Shellshag Forever on April 20 at Maxwell's with Screaming Females, Swearin' Hilly Eye, and Waxahatchee/Swearin' side project Great Thunder (tickets). The flyer for the release show is below.

They've also since announced other local shows, including May 10 at Death by Audio with Black Wine, Swearin', and comedians Dave Hill and Chris Gethard, May 18 at Mercury Lounge, where they'll be an opener, along with Hunters, for the first of two previously announcedJEFF the Brotherhood shows (JEFF also plays Merc on 5/19), May 25 at Party Expo with Moira Scara, and June 5 at Death by Audio with Shell's brother's band, Apogee Sound Cloud. All dates are listed below.

I also recently spoke to Shellshag about their new album, being veterans of the DIY scene, and the increased attention for Don Giovanni Records. You can read that interview, along with the album stream, video, and list of tour dates, below...

BV faves Hunters have signed with big indie Mom + Pop, where they're now labelmates with Andrew Bird, Wavves, Polica, Metric and more. The label will release the band's debut album this summer. Congratulations!

Garage rockers JEFF the Brotherhood are set to play Coachella and Bonnaroo and they'll be touring around those festivals too. Their tour dates include a stop in NYC for a two-night run at Mercury Lounge from May 18 to 19. These guys go pretty wild, especially in small rooms so get ready for sweaty bodies and booze-soaked craziness everywhere. Tickets for both Mercury Lounge shows go on sale Friday (3/22) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (3/20) at noon.

Anyone who has listened to Art Brut knows that frontman Eddie Argos isn't just a musician, he's also a fan. A fan of comics, movies, television, milkshakes...and music. Eddie and the rest of the band laid low for most of 2012, after a busy 2011 with their most recent album, 'Brilliant! Tragic!' and subsequent touring. But we wanted to know what Eddie was listening to and his list is definitely NOT full of the usual suspects. Says Eddie:

I've been trying to think if I liked 10 albums this year. I think I did. Which is rare for me. However I can't be bothered to fact check and I have a shocking memory so some of my choices may be from the end of last year. So in no paticular order and written in real time with no forethought here is my hopefully top ten albums of the year...

Delta Spirit wrapped up their tourwith JEFF the Brotherhoodand FIDLAR this past Wednesday (11/28) in Boston, after hitting NYC for a show at Irving Plaza a day earlier (11/27). Delta Spirit were touring behind their new self titled album, from which they played a bunch, but kept the setlist well split between that and their other albums. During their setlist, Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez dedicated "Ransom Man" to musicians who lost equipment during Hurricane Sandy.

More pictures from the Irving Plaza show (including one of the setlist), below.

JEFF spoke to us about their favorite music of the year and gave us a list of their top ten albums. Some of the bands on the list (like Diarrhea Planet and Heavy Cream and Skimask and Cy Barkley) are on their Infinity Cat label, but that doesn't mean we don't believe them. Check out the full list below...

FIDLAR also recently made a video for "Cheap Beer," the opening track on their self titled debut LP, which is due out on January 22 via Mom & Pop. You can check out that video and a list of all dates below.